Malacca

Radio blaring the end of an advertisement in the background: ".. so guys! Take your chicks to all the cool places around Malaysia, because Malaysia is.... Chuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnn! "

Having been, in all probability, brainwashed by said advertisement, Sarah and I decided to take a drive down to Malacca for a day, just because.

Malacca's pretty much the same, still hot, still cheap, but with less green and more mall - anyone remember the old Bullock Cart ride on the padang? Well it's gone. In it's place? Dataran Pahlawan Digital and IT Mall. Woohoo for the preservation of our culture and history!

So hennyway, the reason most people locals pop into Malacca is for the food. In that spirit, we decided to be as touristy as possible in our day and scout out the best of its popular food.

Lunch was Malacca's infamous Chicken Rice Balls of course - really good, with the only minor complaint being that the chicken was cut very irregularly, though that didn't affect the taste whatsoever. I kind of missed the name of the place, but it's a corner shoplot immediately on your right upon crossing the bridge, opposite OCBC Bank. You can't possibly miss it.

Of course, supposing you're still thirsty after your meal, Malacca's even got places where you can get drinks for free! With a few conditions of course..

Who says sexism no longer exists?

In Malacca, there are two ways to burn off the calories from lunch- letting the sun melt it away and the classic "walking". The most efficient way is to combine the two, which is what we then did, combined with some Nikon Moments of course.









A not-to-be-missed place for those Nikon Moments is definitely the Church of St. Paul, with its windy path up, gorgeous green grass, ancient architecture and historical history, it's what your camera's been dreaming about since it was nothing more than a little lump of metal in the ground. It also provides sweet relief from the heat with a cool breeze constantly blowing into the shade.

After some time wandering around, you'll start to notice that the heat is getting quite hot. When such a time does come, and it will, there are a selection of things one can do to cool down. You can opt to..

cool off by a fountain..

or have an ice cream. (you can even use the stick for weird camwhoring!)

Now one thing I realised about Malacca is that many of it's buildings and shops are extremely creatively designed. You have..

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The Orang Utan House, which is basically a shop selling artwork and t-shirts featuring the designs of one Charles Cham. You have to admit, it's intriguing isn't it? Almost reason enough on it's own to persuade you to patronise the shop.

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The doors of a tattoo parlour.

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And of course there's Capitol Satay Restaurant, where we procured our evening meal-

My first taste of satay celup.

Now, no touristy trip down to Malacca would be complete without being chauffered around town in a trishaw by a 22 year old electrical engineering student called Carl, and so in order to complete our trip, that's what we did.

Not long after, we took our leave of Malaysia's most historic state, keeping in mind the wisdom we had discovered that day.. wisom which I shall now pass unto you.

So bear in mind, always, that when you are in Malacca, you absolutely must

License To Thrill: A Levels Ball 2007

The first day of July brought with it HELP's annual A Levels Ball, which is in almost every sense the last time many of us will be seeing each other- basically the perfect excuse to pull out those cameras and snap away.

Held in Mandarin Oriental KL, the somewhat cornily themed "License To Thrill" ball got underway punctually (by Malaysian standards anyway- that is to say, half an hour behind time) with everyone gradually settling in for the evening.

With the emceeing being well taken care of by hitzDOTfm's Junior and Mix's DJ Dan, the night rolled on with performances by several A Levels students, both past and present, among the most notable of which was the sudden, spontaneous participation of our very own Ms Caroline in a dance performed by Divya and Stutti. I'll post the video when if I figure out how.

Of course, all of this was interspersed with ample camwhoring, the fruits of which you shall now witness..

Table 34

Michelle, Krys, Sarah and I Me and the Mafia Don, Jonson

Sarah and I, Billy and YiWayneThe HELP KorBubuans YiLyn and I

Dancing to the beat of Borange My Twin: Nian King

with Agnes and PearlyHarry Potter, myself, Poledance King and Superman
WuiLeng and Sarah

My baby and I

Adrian, Nizam, myself, Shamir, Kenneth, Bryan and Duey

Sabak Bernam and Sungai Besar come together: Aaron Hee and I

The Lit Bunch: myself, SuYin, Sumi, Balqis, HsiaoVern and Aaron
with SheuJeen and Sithira

From Playgroup Playmates to Prom Royalty: Sukanya and I

Perks of being Prom King:

- World's ugliest Boy London watch

- Free 3 months Fitness First membership

- RM270 worth of XTion Paintball vouchers

- Adidas football

- RM50 Sports Planet voucher

- ekSPlorer magazine

- RM200 Celzone voucher

- Borders vouchers

- 2 movie passes

It was overall a fun night with lots of merrymaking, courtesy of the organising committee. I enjoyed myself thoroughly and I'm pretty sure everyone else did as well. Kudos to the committee for a job well done and thank you to everyone for putting up with me for the past year and a half- it was great getting to know you.

And now, to further enhance the emo-ness, this is the sight that greeted us upon our departure.

Strikes a chord, doesn't it?

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for more pictures, tap.

Cameron Highlands: A Recollection

As the events of the following day unfolded, my camera became my memory..
and so it shall do the talking.
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Feeling the urge to hike again, and seeing as we had such beautiful weather, we proceeded to scale Gunung Brinchang yet again - in much more relaxed spirits than during the previous attempt.

I'd have to say the reward at the end was well worth it.

Mt. Irau in the background.

Even the telco towers were scenic.

It was a quick lunch after, then off to Robinson's Falls

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to relax a little..

to camwhore a little..

and to just be a little bit funny.

All in all I'd have to say..

..it was a pretty fruitful trip.

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for more pictures, tap.